


The Light We Cast

by peacock_butterfly



Category: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, Zombies Run!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Gen, No Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-18 16:28:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20642183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peacock_butterfly/pseuds/peacock_butterfly
Summary: AU where everything is the same, except the living have daemons.(I don't know where (if anywhere) I'm going with this, I might attempt some vignettes around early S1 missions. For now here's a quick experimental piece.)





	The Light We Cast

“No matter how many times we see them, they still freak me out!” complains Runner Four, accelerating. Her daemon leaps a fallen log and back-kicks the zombie chasing him, which flies backwards into two others. “People  _ alone… _ It’s just… so wrong!”

“Two more from the east!” calls Sagax, from her position in the tree above her human. The jay flies down to Runner Ten’s shoulder as he fiddles with the camera he’s trying to repair. “We’ve gotta be quick, Chris.”

“Here, hold these.”

Sagax takes the wires in her beak, and hops down to the floor, twitching her head at the camera as Ten unscrews another component.

“Where are the others?!” Four circles back, joined by her trotting stag-daemon. Adi snorts and stamps his hooves in the fallen leaves, continuing her thought, “They should be here by now.”

Something sleek and dark goes shooting through the leaves between them, and skids to a halt in front of Runner Ten. “We got them,” barks Bonnie, her tongue lolling excitedly. “You should have seen it, Sagax, it was great! Did that pincer thing you were telling us about!”

Sagax flutters her wings anxiously, flashing her blue side-feathers. Runner Seven is further behind his daemon than Jody and Adi think is reasonable; he jogs into the clearing a few seconds later. Bonnie trots a lap of the group, bumping up to Adi’s hind legs affectionately as she passes him. “Five and I took down a good group at the pond,” reports Seven, catching his breath. He’s carrying a length of piping that’s dripping horribly.

_ “You can’t stay there, guys,” _ comes the voice of Sam over their headsets.  _ “Five is dealing with some stragglers at the pond. Three and Six are occupied to the west. There are two more upright zoms from the east, and a larger pack heading your way from the path you came in on.” _

“Nearly there…” Sagax hands Ten another piece of wire. “Give me two more minutes.”

Seven glances at his daemon, and they set off together to the east, Bonnie loosing a couple of barks in exuberance.

“Noooo,” complains Adi, “Bonnie no… You’ll draw their attention…”

“I think they’re onto us anyway,” replies Four. “At least those two will be distracted by Seven. Chris, come  _ on… _ ”

“There! There I got it. Let me just… Here Jody hold this top in place.”

Sagax flutters up to his shoulder again. “Do you hear that?”

“Two more screws…”

Adi is prancing with nerves. “Come onnnnn…”

“There!” Ten puts the screwdriver between his teeth, grabs the camera and slams it back into its cradle attached to the tree. He removes the screwdriver and smiles shakily. “Okay Sam that’s it, all done.”

Sagax takes wing and loops around their heads, crying, “Go, go, now,  _ now _ !”

A zombie bursts out of the undergrowth behind them, and just misses Four’s ponytail with a rotting hand. 

Jody and Adi both scream. Sam and his daemon both jump, and something thuds into the comms desk. Ten yells and without thinking plunges the screwdriver into the top of the zombie’s skull. It goes down in a gurging heap; Ten barely leaps back in time to avoid its still-grasping hands.

Jody gags. “Uugghhh! Oh my god. Let’s go. Run, run!”

Sagax swoops lower. “The screwdriver…”

“Forget it!” retort Jody and Adi simultaneously. 

_ “Keep running, guys, you’re clear if you keep running south. Oh man. That made us jump so hard Tara knocked over a whole pile of run reports. No wait… Ohhhh crap. More coming in, across the meadow. You’re gonna have to speed up.” _

A bark announces Runner Seven and his daemon as they sweep in to join their formation as they come out into open fields. Sure enough, five zombies are staggering alarmingly quickly across the grass in their direction. The Runners race down the hill towards the main road, slowing as the humans climb over the fence; the daemons bound and glide over the top. 

The road winds between the fields, rising up another small hill before curving down by the ponds and some ruined old farm buildings. At the top of the rise stands a grey-white wolf, alert, fur ruffled by the breeze. As Seven, Four and Ten begin to climb the hill, the wolf’s human jumps down from her perch on the fence. “It’s done?”

“Yep…” pants Ten, reaching the top last. His daemon glides over the top of the wolf’s head and loops back to come to rest back on his shoulder. “How did we do on the zombie dragging?”

They look behind them; two of the five zombies have made it over the fence already. Runner Eight tuts gently; her daemon Déine bares her teeth. 

“Huh,” observes Ten. 

_ “Guys… Look, this is getting tricky to manage. Five is tired but doing okay, but Three and Six just had to bail from their distraction because of that critical mass thing Chris was telling us about? Yeah. That happened. They’re on their way home, but they’re dragging twenty to thirty zoms.” _

Seven makes a hissing noise. “That’s too many for the snipers. We’ve got to thin it down.”

“Tell them to split up,” suggests Ten. 

“We could pincer them,” suggests Bonnie.

“Even with four of us, we’d never take down thirty,” counters Déine, still observing the two zombies, who are now heading up the slope. “And only one of us have fresh legs.”

“Noisemakers?” suggests Sagax. “We have one still in our rucksack.”

_ “I think noisemakers are your best bet,”  _ agrees Sam. _ “Can you go two and two, and split that pack up? Uh… Let’s see… Runner Eight, you and Ten need to head back down the hill, turn left at the overturned lorry container, and head over the footbridge. Seven and Four, carry on past the farm buildings, and turn right at the T-junction. You’ll cross the little roadbridge. Once you’re both over the river I’ll update you. Go. Run!” _

  
  



End file.
